A. Deep Player Pool Penetration is rare in a mixed AL and NL League: Quality of Team Owners trumps quantity of Owners. No matter what type of league, it only takes a few stragglers to drag it down. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Too many times, however, we add owners so our league has more teams in order to achieve deeper penetration of the player pool. on Auction Day. Instead, we end up with too many unproven owners. Wouldn't you rather have thirteen great General Managers instead of 26 GMs where it is more than likely that a few will detract from your league by drafting like your sister, refuse to keep up in-season, and make putrid trades (then add insult to injury by quittting after a single season- one and done)? We'd rather have thirteen great owner-managers with double the standard Roto active player rosters, because deeper player pool penetration is paramount. Quality of Team Owners Trumps Quantity.B. This is a league which encourages trades, promotes aggressive waiver wire maintenance, and limits streaming.C. Play them, trade them, or risk losing them on the waiver wire. Make all healthy players active. No bench, 46 active roster slots.D. The bane of every League’s continued health: Ghost Teams and landslide Trade Dumping after the All Star Game Break. Twenty-six weeks is a long season, but it is a lot longer when you’re stuck in the 2nd division. with little hope of getting players who are reserved and shelved by other teams even thoug the players are currently putting up counting stats. You need hope as well as a Keeper Roster to keep you active for the entire season. We especially provide hope in concrete, conceptual ways.E. Every MLB team will win 50 games and every MLB will lose 50 games-- no matter what. It’s what they do in the remaining 62 games that matters. In our League, the Floor and Ceiling as far as points to be earned are a lot closer than ever to our feet and head at the end of the season. Being a Keeper League is great, but not when your Keeper roster makes the pennsnt race over by the All Star Game or makes your advantage too great on Auction Day. The playing field has been leveled. A good Keeper roster is still a fine thing to have; it’s just no longer the chief thing.F. It’s unusual to find a mixed AL and NL that has this kind of penetration into the player pool on Auction Day: aprox. 79.7% of all active MLB players should be on Next Great rosters. On Auction day the Team Salary Ceiling is $520 for the double rosters, so value calculations are the same as before. In mixed leagues, any and every piece of MLB news is interesting; baseball news and analysis junkies unite in mixed leagues.G. Role players who contribute double figures in counting category stats matter as much in our Roto as in real life. How often have bit players had a material effect on your current Roto League’s final standings? Or even been on a roster for more than a week or two? Based on experience with our Urleague (our original, earliest, primitive roto league for 26 seasons and still counting), two or three HRs here or the same number of Wins or RBI there are frequently the difference between being in the First Place or the First Division or not after the entire 26 week season. 46 active roster slots and 12 scoring categories makes the categories tighter.H. This is a League that makes tactics and roster construction equally as important as projecting player values. In the Next Great you really are a GM who can make a difference.I. The deep player pool penetration means that ultimately, after the newness of the experience wears off, it will dawn on owners that trading can change your fortune when big sticks or ace hurlers are not in the free agent pool. Our Urleague had over 70 trades just in 2012.J. eBay style Twitter bidding makes the twice/weekly transactions easily accessible from anywhere with a short 15 minute window for bidding each of the 2 nights.K. Blind Vickery FAAB Bidding for players waived by Next Great teams.L. Priority in transaction rounds 2, 3, and 4 on Wednesday nights is based on reverse order of standings AND all nominations and bids are in real time and transparent via Tweet Bids- all within a 15 minute window.M. Per week: two exception moves, unlimited natural moves, one waiver claim, and limitless reserved DL players.N. Teams that continue to apply themselves will be able to find potential Keeper bargains during the August Dog Days Salary Specials.O. Teams who have fought the good fight and are in a pennant race will not see their efforts derailed by the kind of trade dumping that fans should not tolerate in The Show.P. We readily concede we don’t use cutting edge sabermetric stats as league scoring categories. This allows anyone and everyone to easily figure on the back of an envelope from the box score the net effect of a single game on their Roto team. Instead, competitive teams in Next Great use their own skilled analysis of the game’s internal numbers to predict playing time, role, and future impact on our 12 categories/external stats.Q. And most Leagues that do have advanced sabermetric categories don’t have them set up in opposition to one another, making for more tactical decisions. In the Next Great you need both IP and Ks which you must balance against ERA and WHIP. You need BA, yet you need PA too. These are not easy decisions when so many categories are so tight at the end of the season.R. In the post-PED endemic injuries era, even though all other non-trade moves are limited to two days per week, activating a reserved player by 9 p.m. any night is effective the next day.S. Again, no bench. Our league is for GMs, not daily mangers. We encourage trades, promote aggressive waiver wire maintenance, and limit streaming.T. Player contracts for 2 years + Topper Rights. Dynasty/Keeper League- max 15 on Freeze Roster, including Toppers. Just like Free Agency in The Show, you can keep a player on your team forever if you’re willing to pay one dollar more than the market every 3rd season.U. On Auction Day to offer an angle on angle strategy for those clairvoyants inclined to indulge their mystical talents: Anyone alive is NOW available for purchase, should you choose to spend part of your $520 salary cap in that manner. For instance, you can buy a kid in the minors or in college or Japan or even the Korean League. You can later keep him on your Freeze Roster, but if he is not on an MLB roster on the following Auction Day, then he is automatically dropped back into the Auction Free Agent Pool.V. Swing Man Roster slot instead of 4th catcher provides roster flexibility.W. $20+ DL = REDEMPTION: If a player is bought for at least $20 in the current season’s Auction AND subsequent to Auction Day is placed on a major league Disabled List his Next Great team may release him before he is activated by his MLB team and redeem a portion of his current salary as an in-season FAAB Bonus.X. Our single on-line Off-season Trading party on the eve of Freeze rosters promotes off-season trading.Y. Our $10 fee makes it possible for most people to enjoy 12 months of fun and our lack of a cash prize consistently dissuades money-grubbing cheaters, while the Next Great will be the most challenging league you ever play in. Bar none…

The long island league is a 12 team mixed 5x5 keeper league. We use serpentine draft. We have been operating for 15 years. Great group of owners. We are looking for 1 experienced and knowledgeable owner to take a team that has become available. We are long island based but the draft is held both in person and over the phone for those out of state. The cost is $200 plus $15 for Sportsline. No fees for free agent moves, daily move league. All fees go to prizes for the top four finishers. Please contact me at wetm15@yahoo.com if interested. Constitution:

OVERVIEW

This will be a keeper league designed for people who either live on Long Island or who would be willing to attend a live draft on Long Island.

The time and location of the draft may be subject to change from year to year; a conference call may be set up for those owners who are unable to attend in person.

There will be 12 teams.

The entry fee per team will be $214 which will cover payouts and the cost of running the league.

The fee and payout structure may be subject to change.

Estimated Payouts

1st place - $1200 2nd place - $600 3rd place - $400 4th place - $200

In the event of a tie in the standings the money will be split evenly between the teams that tied except for 4th place. In case there is a tie for 4th place the two teams will flip to choose either the $200 prize or the 1st overall pick for the following year’s draft.

Ex: Tie for first place would results in the two teams sharing the $1800 and walking away with $900 each.

From time to time there will be league votes that are conducted to determine rule changes. The vote will typically take place prior to the live draft.

If you have an illegal roster you will lose all your stats for that day. If the illegality of your roster was due to circumstances beyond your control you may receive your stats back retroactively.

Game Limits

162 games per position 1550 innings pitched, 800 minimum

If you don’t meet the minimum requirements you will receive zero points for those categories.

Teams will stop receiving points when the maximums are reached.

Position Eligibility

Players are eligible at their primary position, plus positions they've played 20 games at last year or 10 games this year.

Adding/Dropping players

You must keep a player that you add through free agency or claim off of waivers for at least one game before you can drop them.

Any player listed in the CBS player pool is eligible to be added even if that player has not yet signed with a MLB team.

Trading

August 23rd at 11:59 pm EST will be the trade deadline.

Trades can be vetoed. It will take 7 veto votes to overturn a trade. Owners will have 3 days to vote before the trade is processed.

During the season trades will be processed through CBS. During the off season trade terms must be completed through an email to the league.

Draft picks can be traded beginning the day after the season has ended for the following year’s draft only.

III. STAT CATEGORIES

This will be a standard 5 x 5 rotisserie league. The categories we will use are:

Offense

Batting Average HRs Runs Rbis Stolen Bases

Pitching

Wins Saves-Blown Saves K's Whip ERA

IV. OFF SEASON

Keeping Players

Each team must keep 5 players.

There are no restrictions for how long you can keep a player for.

Keeper lists are due approximately two weeks prior to the start of the draft.

If a player is injured after lists are submitted an owner can choose to replace that player with another player from their roster as long as it is prior to the start of the draft.

The Draft

The draft order will start with the 9th place team and go through the 12th place team then the 8th place team to the 1st place team.

It will be a snake draft.

You may trade draft picks before and after the season. Teams will always receive an equal number of picks in return.

V. MISC.

Spirit of the League Rule

This league is designed solely for entertainment purposes. Collusion, abusive behavior, and other acts deemed detrimental to the league will not be tolerated and may be grounds for dismissal from the league.